Tony Evans Speaks Out on Being Single and Satisfied

Excellent book for Singles who are having problems with being Satisfied in their singleness. I recommend it to anyone who needs assurance of being single and satisfied. By far the best book I have purchased.

I loved this booklet! Although it is an abbreviation of his sermonettes on Single Dating, it is fast and delightful reading. We used this booklet as a supplement and follow-along resource to the DVD's of Dr. Evans preaching the same message. He is an excellent speaker, and I recommend purchasing the DVD's for the series as well.

I first encountered Tony Evans when I was just a baby of a Christian. I attended a city-wide revival where he was one of two featured speakers. At the time, I was going through a "renewing the mind" period. I read a book by Charles Stanley that gave me the idea to commit to listening to God's word being preached every day (buying lots of sermon tapes and listening to lots of Christian radio), reading the word everyday, listening to only praise music, and no TV (except for a little news and CNN's crossfire). So at the revival, I went to Tony Evans resource table and bought a series of sermons on The Family. One of the messages in the series was about Joseph - how he was a successful single. This was my first introduction to Joseph, and I've loved him ever since. Dr. Evans has some great things to say about being Single and Satisfied.

Visit your local Christian bookstore, and you will be bombarded with an enormous amount of literature on how to maintain a godly marriage. There is a myriad of books out there on Christian parenting as well as encouragement for Christian couples and parents--books which provide wise counsel for the sometimes overwhelming complexities and frustrations in married life. And I'm glad these literary sources are available. But in all the hoopla over how tough married life is, most people tend to forget that single life is no walk in the park either. In fact, in this day and age, being a Christian single is very tough. This way of life is certainly not for wimps or the faint of heart. Christian singles today face constant adversity and judgementalism. These come from two sources. The first source is, of course, the secular world, particularly Western media. We live in a world which encourages and even stresses sexual and emotional romantic intimacy between the sexes without the need for the "outdated" and "archaic" institution of marriage. The other source, unfortunately, is the church itself. Most people in the church today believe in an academic sense that God has ordained some people for a life of marriage and others for a life of singleness. But that belief stops there, because it is not evident in their speech or interactions. Many in the church look down on singles. They like to quote Bible passages such this one from Genesis: "It is not good for man to be alone." In doing so, however, they totally ignore the fact that God wanted a populated earth and this was impossible with one lone man. Such a belief also ignores the fact that Jesus Christ was single and so was the apostle Paul during his Christian ministry. I say all this because Dr. Tony Evans's book, BEING SINGLE AND SATISFIED, effectively addresses these concerns--or as effectively as any 55-page book could. (And because this little book is only 55 pages, even a slow, lazy reader like myself can easily get through it in one sitting.) Dr. Evans also does a wonderful job imploring the Christian single to not just sit idle waiting for Mr./Miss Right. Dr. Evans reminds us to approach single life with a Kingdom-oriented attitude. I was especially impressed in the way Dr. Evans stresses that the sovereignty of God is revealed by the Christian's marital status. In other words, I don't have to feel ashamed or embarrassed as if I'm single because I'm not good enough to have a wife. I'm single because God is sovereign, and He knows what He's doing. Probably the most impressive illustration in the book is that of Ruth and Naomi. When Naomi tried to get Ruth married off (and probably had the best of intentions at the time), Ruth decided instead of returning to Moab where she would be more likely to find a "suitable" husband, to go to Israel simply because she had become a believer in the God of Israel. She was willing to risk never marrying again (she was a widow) just to obe